Cabinet approves setting up of Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalayas in 62 uncovered districts of the country

Cabinet approves setting up of Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalayas in 62 uncovered districts of the country

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs, chaired by the Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi has approved opening of one Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya (JNV) in each of the 62 uncovered districts with an outlay of Rs.2,871 crore.

The expenditure for this purpose during the 12th Plan will be Rs.109.53 crore with a spill over amount of Rs.2,761.56 crore from 2017-18 to 2024-25. These JNVs will provide good quality modern education to the talented children prominently from rural areas. It is expected that nearly 35,000 students will be benefitted from these JNVs.

As JNVs are residential and co-educational in nature, it is compulsory for all the staff and students to reside in the Vidyalaya campus. Due to its residential nature, each JNV will generate opportunities to the local vendors for supply of essential commodities such as food, consumables, furniture, teaching material etc. It will also create large opportunity for local service providers such as barber, tailor cobbler, manpower for housekeeping and security services etc.

Background:

As on date, there are 598 sanctioned JNVs in 576 districts spread across 35 States / Union Territories. Out of these, 591 are functional. Each JNV has classes from VI to XII with a sanctioned strength of 80 students per class and total strength of 560 students. Admissions to JNVs in class VI are done through an entrance examination. At least 75% of the seats in a district are filled by candidates selected from rural areas of the district.

Further, reservation of seats in favour of children belonging to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes is provided in proportion to their population in the concerned district subject to the condition that in no district such reservation is less than the national reservation percentage (15% for SC and 7.5% for ST). One third of the total seats are reserved for girls.

List of the 62 uncovered districts in the country where new JNVs will be opened